Meet Austin T. Shepard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin T. Shepard.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born in Cañon City, Colorado in 1995 and grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and cowboys. I was raised on the Rodeo trail traveling all across the Western United States for most of each year up until mid-elementary school. For the rest of my young adult life at home my parents continued to pursue rodeo parallel with starting and running various successful businesses. I was able to be a part of and usually work for these businesses. My family has/had a scrap metal business, cattle ranching, and now mostly does commercial and residential real estate/remodeling in Colorado and West Texas.

This eclectic lifestyle helped me develop a very wide ranged skillset, a strong work ethic, a creative entrepreneurial spirit, and an appreciation for diversity in life/being well-rounded. I grew up drawing and painting as a hobby, often filling sketchbooks on the long journeys between rodeos. I decided to pursue higher education at Arizona State University immediately after high school. I studied marketing my freshman year but the lack of creativity was suffocating. I decided to switch my major to Art Studies. It went really well but I couldn’t restrict myself to 2-dimensional work so I decided to move in the direction of sculpture.

I got accepted into the sculpture program at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, and now focus in metal work like fabrication, foundry, blacksmithing, and jewelry. I coordinated the ASU Neon Club end of the year show at PUSH Gallery near 12st and Roosevelt. I’m currently working with the owner of PUSH organizing more upcoming shows.

Please tell us about your art.
For me, making art is the most fulfilling avenue of exercising a creative lifestyle, and has become a driving force for existence. Like the cactus of the desert enduring the extreme desert conditions, fighting to bloom maybe only once a year, and putting its life force into the creation of that beauty, I put my life force into creating what I perceive to be glorifying to the Creator. For efficient fulfillment I choose to cater to whatever process by which I am creating. If the patina dries a different color and the sandblaster removes the texture, I just ramble on and cater to what the material does best, not what I think it needs to do.

My current work is laden with fortitude. It’s steel that’s been welded and bolted, or it’s a bold form immortalized in cast bronze, or it’s solidified in concrete sand. There is a true grit that my family has always had, from my great grandpa who came back from Italy (WWII) to work at the local steel mill, or my other side of the family ranching cattle in Wyoming through the great depression, I try my best to carry on that resolve and work ethic into my own work, in the process and final product. It takes perseverance and heart to survive as an artist. Just like Johnny Cash said, “Son, this world is rough and if a man’s going to make it he’s got to be tough.”

Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
1. Work really hard, you won’t regret it. Develop and progress your skillset constantly and before you know it you’ll be an expert.
2. Be financially wise. Being a self-employed artist is complicated. Educate and discipline yourself to be the master of your money so you can afford nice supplies, tools, and materials.
3. Get connected. DM/email artists you’d like to be friends with and galleries you’d like to work with. Check out the resources Art Link offers especially by being an ‘Articipant.’
4. Have fun! Seek joy and purpose in your work and you’ll find fulfillment.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
This year I’ve mostly been welding custom gates and fences around the valley, but I’ve also been working in my studio building up a collection of pieces to either show, likely at PUSH Gallery this winter, or to sell at local art/craft shows with my girlfriend Sabina Kennedy alongside her work. I’m the artist of the month at Florence Library for December (Florence, Colorado). Lastly, you can always see what I’m currently working on and some of what I’ve finished if you check out my Instagram, @austintshepard.

Contact Info:

• Website: austintshepard.com
• Email: atshepar@asu.edu
• Instagram: @austintshepard

Image Credit:
All photos taken by myself or Sean Sheridan

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